US7916207B2 - Apparatus and method for generating focus data in an image sensor - Google Patents
Apparatus and method for generating focus data in an image sensor Download PDFInfo
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- US7916207B2 US7916207B2 US11/319,554 US31955405A US7916207B2 US 7916207 B2 US7916207 B2 US 7916207B2 US 31955405 A US31955405 A US 31955405A US 7916207 B2 US7916207 B2 US 7916207B2
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- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims description 27
- 238000003708 edge detection Methods 0.000 claims description 8
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
- H04N23/60—Control of cameras or camera modules
- H04N23/67—Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
- H04N23/673—Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals based on contrast or high frequency components of image signals, e.g. hill climbing method
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
- H04N23/60—Control of cameras or camera modules
- H04N23/67—Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals
- H04N23/675—Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals comprising setting of focusing regions
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N23/00—Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof
- H04N23/80—Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
- H04N23/84—Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof for processing colour signals
- H04N23/843—Demosaicing, e.g. interpolating colour pixel values
Definitions
- the present invention relates to an auto focus control of an image sensor; and, more particularly, to an apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor having an RGB bayer color pattern by using only green information, and a method for generating the same.
- CMOS complementary metal oxide semiconductor
- CCD charge coupled device
- SOC system on chip
- CMOS technology which has been set up already, can be utilized compatibly in fabricating the CMOS image sensor, there is another merit that it is possible to reduce manufacturing cost.
- an auto focus control function becomes an essential function of the image sensor. Therefore, it becomes a criterion to determine the function of the image sensor how sharply the focus is adjusted under various environments. Accordingly, there have been increased image sensor systems having the auto focus control function.
- FIG. 1 is a block diagram setting forth a conventional apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor.
- the conventional apparatus for generating the focus data includes an RGB interpolation unit 100 for performing an RGB interpolation using an RGB bayer pattern, a color space converter 101 for performing a color space conversion for extracting a luminance component of ‘Y’ value using the interpolated RGB data, and a focus data generation unit 102 for generating the focus data using the ‘Y’ value extracted through the color space conversion.
- the focus data is generated by extracting the ‘Y’ luminance value from an RGB domain, after interpolating the bayer pattern to have the RGB data at every pixel through the RGB interpolation unit 100 .
- the conventional apparatus requires the interpolation unit 100 to generate the focus data and the color space converter 101 to extract the ‘Y’ value.
- blocks for the interpolation and the color spacer conversion should be additionally installed in the conventional apparatus for generating the focus data so that a hardware resource is additionally needed, which leads to increase power consumption after all.
- an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor capable of preventing hardware resources and power consumption from being increased when extracting the focus data, and a method for generating the same.
- an apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor including: a green interpolation unit for generating a M ⁇ N green plane from the RGB bayer pattern of a predetermined selected image window through a green interpolation; and a focus data generation unit for extracting the focus data from the M ⁇ N green plane, wherein M and N are positive integers.
- a method for generating a focus data in an image sensor including: selecting an image window for obtaining a focus data from an RGB bayer pattern; performing a green interpolation for generating an M ⁇ N green plane using the RGB bayer pattern in the selected window; and extracting a focus data from the M ⁇ N green plane if the bad pixel does not exist, wherein M and N are positive integers.
- FIG. 1 is a block diagram setting forth a conventional apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram setting forth an apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention
- FIG. 3 is a flow chart setting forth a procedure for generating the focus data of the image sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention
- FIG. 4 is a graph showing spectral characteristic of red (R), green (G), and blue (B);
- FIG. 5 is a drawing illustrating a green interpolation
- FIG. 6 is a drawing setting forth a convolution of a green plane and a Laplacian mask for generating a boundary value.
- FIG. 2 is a block diagram setting forth an apparatus for generating a focus data in an image sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
- the apparatus for generating the focus data in accordance with the present invention includes a green interpolation unit 200 and a focus data generation unit 201 .
- the green interpolation unit 200 selects a window for obtaining a focus data from an RGB bayer pattern, and generates an M ⁇ N green plane (M and N are positive integers) from the bayer pattern for using the focus data in the selected window.
- the focus data generation unit 201 extracts the focus data by extracting a boundary value with a high frequency component from the M ⁇ N green plane.
- FIG. 3 is a flow chart setting forth a procedure for generating the focus data of the image sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
- an interpolation is performed using information about a peripheral green pixel at the RGB bayer pattern in the selected window (S 302 ).
- the M ⁇ N green plane may be obtained from an (M+1) ⁇ (N+1) bayer pattern and also may be obtained from an M ⁇ N bayer pattern.
- FIG. 4 is a graph showing spectral characteristic of red (R), green (G), and blue (B).
- FIG. 4 shows relative response versus wavelength of RGB. It is understood that the green (G) has information with regard to both red (R) and blue (B) because it has a medium wavelength band between red (R) and blue (B).
- FIG. 5 is a drawing illustrating a green interpolation.
- each location of (1,1), (1,3), (2,2), (3,1), and (3,3) has green information, whereas the other locations do not have the green information.
- the green interpolation is performed over the locations having no green information using a following mathematic equation 2.
- G 12 ( G 11+ G 22+ G 13)/3
- G 21 ( G 11+ G 22+ G 31)/3
- G 23 ( G 13+ G 22+ G 33)/3
- G 32 ( G 22+ G 31+ G 33)/3 [Eq. 2]
- the pixel having no green information e.g., G11, G21, G23, and G32, has a mean value of the green values of nearest-neighboring pixels having the green information.
- the bayer data may undergo a bad pixel cancellation process. However, unless the bayer data undergoes the bad pixel cancellation process, the focus data is generated by using an edge detection filter (S 304 ) in case that there is no bad pixel therein, after determining as to whether there is any bad pixel or not in order to reduce an effect of the focus data due to the bad pixel (S 303 ).
- the green interpolation is performed again (S 302 ) after performing a bad pixel compensation (S 305 ).
- the G22 pixel satisfies a following inequality conditions, i.e.,
- the G22 pixel does not satisfy the above inequality conditions, it is not the bad pixel so that the bad pixel compensation is not performed.
- the corresponding pixel G22 is regarded as a bad pixel. Otherwise, the corresponding pixel G22 is not regarded as the bad pixel.
- the corresponding pixel G22 is interpolated to have the means value of the green values of the pixels G11, G13, G31 and G33 of which one has its green information.
- the focus data is generated.
- a procedure for generating the focus data will be more illustrated in detail herebelow.
- the energy of the high frequency component may enable the focus data to be generated by taking only image information of a high frequency region after transforming the image information of a spatial domain into that of a frequency domain through M ⁇ N Fourier transform or discrete cosine transform.
- frequency transformation of the M ⁇ N block has a decisive effect on enlarging an area of a hardware because there is a need for a line memory or the like for frequency transformation, it is possible to apply the M ⁇ N edge detection filter for generating the focus data instead of this process in order to prevent the area of the hardware from being enlarged.
- FIG. 6 is a drawing setting forth a convolution of the green plane and a Laplacian mask for generating a boundary value.
- the boundary value of each pixel is a summation value of them after being multiplied by coefficients of a M ⁇ N edge detection filter such as Sobel or Laplacian mask. In this manner, the boundary value of each pixel which belongs to the focus region is successively accumulated to obtain the focus value.
- the present invention provides the method for generating the focus data for the auto focus control in the system in which the image sensor having RGB bayer pattern is mounted.
- the present invention without the R/B interpolation and the color space conversion processes, which are essentially needed for generating the focus in the prior art, it is possible to generate the focus data accurately, which results in reducing the area of the hardware and power consumption.
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Abstract
Description
Y=0.299×R+0.587×G+0.114×B [Eq. 1]
G12=(G11+G22+G13)/3
G21=(G11+G22+G31)/3
G23=(G13+G22+G33)/3
G32=(G22+G31+G33)/3 [Eq. 2]
G22=(G11+G13+G31+G33)/4 [Eq. 3]
E=8×G22−(G11+G12+G13+G21+G23+G31+G32+G33) [Eq. 4]
Claims (12)
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KR1020040115989A KR100636971B1 (en) | 2004-12-30 | 2004-12-30 | Apparatus for generation of focus data in image sensor and method for generation the same |
KR10-2004-0115989 | 2004-12-30 | ||
KR2004-0115989 | 2004-12-30 |
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US20060146151A1 US20060146151A1 (en) | 2006-07-06 |
US7916207B2 true US7916207B2 (en) | 2011-03-29 |
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Cited By (3)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US8619182B2 (en) | 2012-03-06 | 2013-12-31 | Csr Technology Inc. | Fast auto focus techniques for digital cameras |
US9392236B2 (en) | 2012-10-31 | 2016-07-12 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Image processing method, image signal processor, and image processing system including the same |
US10148926B2 (en) | 2015-12-07 | 2018-12-04 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Imaging apparatus and image processing method of thereof |
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DE102007001010A1 (en) * | 2007-01-02 | 2008-07-10 | Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. | Method and image acquisition system for achromatized image acquisition of objects |
US9179060B2 (en) * | 2007-09-27 | 2015-11-03 | Qualcomm Incorporated | Method and apparatus for camera shake effect image stabilization |
US20090086068A1 (en) * | 2007-09-28 | 2009-04-02 | Tatsuya Hagiwara | Solid-state image pick-up device and image pick-up apparatus |
JP5180795B2 (en) * | 2007-12-10 | 2013-04-10 | キヤノン株式会社 | Imaging apparatus and control method thereof |
JP5200955B2 (en) * | 2008-02-14 | 2013-06-05 | 株式会社ニコン | Image processing apparatus, imaging apparatus, and image processing program |
US10353190B2 (en) | 2009-12-30 | 2019-07-16 | Koninklijke Philips N.V. | Sensor for microscopy |
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CN116055698B (en) * | 2022-12-30 | 2024-04-12 | 爱芯元智半导体(宁波)有限公司 | Color adjustment method, color adjustment device and electronic equipment |
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- 2004-12-30 KR KR1020040115989A patent/KR100636971B1/en active IP Right Grant
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US8619182B2 (en) | 2012-03-06 | 2013-12-31 | Csr Technology Inc. | Fast auto focus techniques for digital cameras |
US9392236B2 (en) | 2012-10-31 | 2016-07-12 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Image processing method, image signal processor, and image processing system including the same |
US10148926B2 (en) | 2015-12-07 | 2018-12-04 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Imaging apparatus and image processing method of thereof |
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US20060146151A1 (en) | 2006-07-06 |
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